Pipeline proposal to be presented
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Hay River (May 28/01) - Conflicts swirling around a Mackenzie Valley pipeline will reach a crescendo at a meeting next week in Hay River.
The central event of the June 5-6 meeting of the aboriginal pipeline working group will be the release of a proposed agreement that outlined terms of aboriginal ownership of the pipeline.
"It's a god-damned sell-out," Winter Lennie said of the proposal.
Lennie, president of the year-old Western Arctic Pipeline Corp., said the aboriginal pipeline working group rejected an initial proposal from the producers group to give NWT aboriginals a stake of five per cent in the 2,200 km. pipeline.
Deal being presented
The deal to be presented next week will be sweeter.
"We're presenting to them what being a one third owner would mean, what we have to do to get there and what it would look like in the long term," said Nellie Cournoyea, co-chair of the working group.
Cournoyea refused to discuss Lennie's organization, but said financing an aboriginal equity interest will hinge on commitments from producers to use the pipeline.
The chairman of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation said projections based on conservative gas price predictions and known gas reserves make the $3 billion pipeline a "very marginal" venture.
Territorial Finance Minister Joe Handley said he hopes aboriginal leaders find the deal to their liking.
"I really hope we get everybody on-side," Handley said. "This is an opportunity for aboriginal people to have a one-third interest in a $3 billion project. That's never happened before in Canada."
Hart Searle, spokesperson for a producers group composed of Gulf Canada, Imperial Oil, Shell Canada and Exxon-Mobil, refused to discuss the deal.
Searle said he had never heard of the Western Arctic Pipeline Corporation.
Working group formed
Lennie, who chairs the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board, joined Deh Cho leaders in criticizing the aboriginal pipeline working group for exceeding its mandate.
The working group was created by a Jan. 28 agreement in principle supported by all NWT leaders. The resolution read: "We the aboriginal peoples of the Northwest Territories agree in principle to build a business partnership to maximize ownerships and benefits of a Mackenzie Valley pipeline."
Nadli and Lennie say that gave the working group the authority to develop a business plan outlining how aboriginal groups would co-operate on construction of a pipeline.
Deh Cho negotiator Chris Reid has also said the pipeline is too big a land claim bargaining chip to give up so easily.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Kakfwi had advised a Yukon aboriginal group to use the proposed Alaska-Yukon pipeline as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the Northwest Territories.
Though he did not answer phone calls from News/North at the time, Kakfwi denied he had offered the advice.
Cournoyea refused to discuss the dispute over a mandate, saying the working group is a business organization not a political one, but said both the Deh Cho and Sahtu have had representatives at meetings of the pipeline working group.
Lennie is proposing that each aboriginal group along the pipeline route negotiate their own deal for the pipeline construction. He wants to see the Sahtu own 100 per cent of portion running across its territory.
